What Could it Hurt?
by denise1
Summary: George visits his friend's new born daughter


Whatﾒs in a name

What Could it Hurt?

by

Denise

"Why won't they let me go in there?" Jacob asked, his voice full of anguish and frustration.

"Trust me Jake. All you're missing is abuse," George chuckled as he saw a passing orderly shoot him a sympathetic look. "I didn't even know my wife KNEW those words, much less how to use them." And boy did she use them. For an Air Force wife, she could curse like a sailor.

"Damn it George. I missed Mark's birth...I promised her I'd be here for this one."

"Jake, she understands," he reassured his friend. Though to be truthful, he wasn't sure how much was understanding and how much was resignation. Normally Mrs. Carter was an extremely personable woman. An excellent officer's wife. But this pregnancy had been hard on her. First a fall had nearly caused her to miscarry. Then her 'Morning Sickness' had lasted for months. She'd had such a hard time keeping anything down and lost so much weight, the doctors at the base hospital had admitted her a couple of times to get nutrients into her via an IV. She'd spent the last month of her pregnancy flat on her back in a hospital bed. George heard the doctors had been trying to get her to terminate the pregnancy...that it wasn't worth risking her life. She'd refused. He swore she'd carried the baby to term through sheer determination alone.

Through it all, she'd refused to call Jake. He'd only found out when he and George came home on leave and discovered the situation.

"To hell with it!" Jake exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "I don't care if she shoots me. We started this together and we're going to finish it together," he declared as he started towards the dual swinging doors that guarded the inner sanctum of the maternity ward.

George quickly got to his feet and followed his friend. Maybe he could keep him from doing something...too rash.

They both stopped short as the doors swung open. A scrub clad nurse walked out, carefully carrying a tiny bundle. "Captain Carter?" she asked, unsure which soldier before her was the proud papa.

"Yes?" Jake said, his earlier determination replaced with trepidation.

"Would you like to hold your daughter sir? Your wife thought you might," she said, holding out an item wrapped in a pink blanket.

"It's a girl?" he asked, a bemused grin splitting his face.

"Daughters usually are Jake," George said with a smile. He didn't think he'd ever seen his friend so flabbergasted.

Jacob cautiously took the baby from the nurse and pulled back the edges of the blanket revealing a tiny, red, scowling face. "My wife?" he asked urgently, looking up.

"We had to do a cesarean but she's going to be fine. You'll be able to see her in a bit," she reassured him.

"You're sure? She's OK?" Jake asked anxiously.

"I'm sure Captain," the nurse nodded with a smile. "I'll give you a few minutes with your daughter then we really need to get her into the nursery."

Jake nodded and slowly sat down in a nearby chair, staring awestruck at his new baby.

The nurse withdrew to the other side of the room, giving him some privacy.

George sat beside his friend, leaning over to see his honorary niece. "What are you going to call her?" he asked as he watched Jake unwrap the child and count her puckered little fingers and toes. Even though he was a father himself, he still marveled at the tininess of a new born. It never seemed possible that something so minuscule and delicate could be a human being.

"I don't know. We aah...we never got around to names," Jake said quietly.

Suddenly the baby make a tiny cooing sound and opened her eyes. My goodness...George had never seen such blue eyes. Oh, sure, all newborns had blue eyes, but these...Jacob was going to have to fight the boys off with a stick in a few years. She blinked and tried to move her tiny arms, maybe in an effort to tell her dad to wrap her back up. It was cold in this new world. George reached out and offered her his finger. She instinctively tried to wrap her tiny hand around it. George frowned as an illicit memory came to the surface of his mind.

_A woman hissing in pain as he removed her cuffs. The nasty cut on her hand._

"_I'm sorry miss. Did I hurt you?"_

"_It's Captain. And it's all right...Lieutenant," she said, seeming to bite back a grin._

NO...It couldn't be...But her last name WAS Carter. "How about Samantha?" he heard himself say, almost before he even thought about what he was saying. Oh he remembered her warning but...surely a name wouldn't change history. What could it hurt?

"Samantha?" Jake asked, skeptically. "Where did you get that from?"

"Oh...just a woman I met once," George said. And if she's right, I will again.

"You want me to name my kid after one of your old girl friends?" Jake asked incredulously.

"Jake, it wasn't like that," George protested.

"Samantha...Sammy...Sam," he tried out the name. "Whatta you say kid? Samantha work for you?" he asked his daughter.

The baby responded by shoving her fist into her mouth and falling asleep.

fin


End file.
